Vilsack Responds to ERS Reports

Secretary says numbers show American ag is on road to recovery.

Sep 08, 2010

In response to the Economic Research Service's report on expected farm income this year, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called the information encouraging news. He says they show that while American agriculture has struggled through difficult economic times, the 2008 Farm Bill, the efforts of the Obama Administration, such as the Recovery Act, and the hard work and resilience of America's farmers and ranchers have helped put American agriculture on the road to recovery.

The Secretary said indicators point to a sustainable recovery sector-wide. While an increase in the value of livestock production accounted for much of the upward movement, the value of dairy production rose by 26.2%; the value of meat animal production is up 14.6%, and the value of poultry and egg production rose 8.4%. And commercial farms and intermediate farms are all expected to have higher average net cash income in 2010 than they did in either 2009 or 2008.

Vilsack credited the gains to the successful implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill as well as the Obama Administration's Recovery Act. Another factor driving this recovery is an increase in income from exports. USDA is raising the forecast for agricultural exports for Fiscal Year 2010 to $107.5 billion – the second highest year on record.